At Smarthistory, we’re on a mission to open museums and cultural sites up to the world, one video at a time. We’re creating world-class resources on art and cultural objects for learners from around the globe—for free.
Smarthistory is the most-visited art history website in the world. Our conversational videos and essays cover art and cultural objects that range from the paleolithic to the present.
Art connects us to the world; it allows us to imagine, to create, to build and to inspire, and it shouldn’t be locked up in a textbook. Smarthistory takes you inside museums and outside to ancient temples and engages in conversations about how to interpret and understand the images you’re seeing. Smarthistory brings you into the conversation.
Smarthistory, a 501(c)(3) is a leading resource for the study of art and cultural heritage.
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker began Smarthistory in 2005. Since then, Smarthistory has won numerous awards and our audience has grown to include millions of undergraduate and graduate students, high school students, instructors, and informal learners. We are committed to distributing the highest-quality art history content on multiple platforms, including Smarthistory.org, Khan Academy, YouTube, and Flickr.
Recent stats:
37 million views in 2017
300~ academic contributors
1800~ essays and videos
100,000 YouTube subscribers
Collaborations:
Smarthistory has worked with dozens of institutions including:
American Museum of Natural History
Art Institute of Chicago
The British Museum
J. Paul Getty Museum
Google Cultural Institute
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Museum of Modern Art
Smithsonian Institution
Tate
Wikipedia/GLAM
World Monuments Fund